The members of each relationship group
below (Groups No. 1 through No. 9) are likely as a rule
to share common Brown ancestors with fellow group members
inside a "genealogical" time frame, that is, approximately since
the widespread introduction of surnames in western Europe during the 15th
century.

These groupings are strictly
tentative, however, and they will necessarily be revised from time
to time. What's more, the identification of specific common ancestors for any group will generally depend more
upon conventional "paper" genealogy than upon additional DNA
testing.

To the extent that there are
mistakes in the groupings, we have tried to err on
the side of inclusiveness by using selection criteria broader than
those employed by many other surname-tracing projects. In technical terms, we
view a false negative as worse than a false positive, so we prefer to err
toward the latter. One implication is that some of this project's Groups will
almost surely lose members -- or even "break down" -- if all their
members should eventually upgrade from 12 to 25 or more markers. Such
outcomes are most probable for Groups equal or close to the so-called
"Atlantic Modal Haplotype" (AMH), as for example Group Nos. 5, 15,
18, 20, 56, 59, 87, 88 and 89. For more information on the AMH issue, see the
discussion under Group No. 20.

Criteria for Determining Relationship Groups:

For Haplogroup R1b and its subclades: Members must match 12/12 on the first 12 markers, at
least 23/25 on the first 25 markers, or at least 33/37 on the first 37
markers.

For
all other Haplogroups: Members must match at
least 11/12 on the first 12 markers, at least 22/25 on the first 25 markers,
or at least 33/37 on the first 37 markers.

Note on Modal Values within
Groups: In cases where a specific marker's modal
value is undefined, a value is substituted from among the modal values for
all project members with the same haplogroup.

Note:Although No. B2956 appears to differ from
the Group's "mode" by three steps, the situation may instead
reflect an example of "recombinational loss of heterozygosity"
(recLOH). If so, No. B2956 probably differs from the mode by

Note: The "Anonymous Browns"
in this group are two men tested by FTDNA who haven't yet joined the Brown
DNA Study.

Group No. 8

Marker
No. (Orange = Fast Mutator)

H'group

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54

55

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

Modal
Values for this Group

I1

13

22

14

10

13

14

11

14

12

12

11

28

15

8

9

8

11

23

16

20

28

12

14

15

15

11

10

19

21

14

13

16

19

36

38

12

10

15297

Allen Brown #1

I1

13

22

13

10

13

14

11

14

12

12

11

28

15

8

9

8

11

23

16

20

28

12

14

15

15

000000

Anonymous
Browns*****

I1

13

22

14

10

13

14

11

14

12

12

11

28

N91688

Kevin Michael
Brown

I1

13

22

14

10

13

14

11

14

12

12

11

28

15

8

9

8

11

23

16

20

28

12

14

15

15

11

10

19

21

14

13

16

19

36

39

12

10

8120

Alan Keith Brown

I1

13

22

14

10

13

14

11

13

12

12

11

28

15

8

9

8

11

23

16

20

28

12

14

15

15

11

10

19

21

14

13

16

19

36

38

12

10

Note 1:
There is a known, close genealogical relationship between No. 8120 and No.
N91688.

Note
2: The "Anonymous Browns" in this group are four men tested by
FTDNA who haven't yet joined the Brown DNA Study. They are also listed below
in Group No. 105, since upgrading to 25 or 37 markers might show that one or
more of these men matches that Group rather than Group No. 8.

***Indicates "null" or no result.
Such cases are retested multiple times to confirm. The underlying science is
still unsettled as to when these readings are caused by true deletions, as
opposed to being caused by imperfect testing techniques. Regardless of cause,
however, mutations that lead to null readings are normally passed to
descendants just as are other mutations, meaning that related male lineages
such as a father and his son will usually share a null value. Therefore a
null value can generally be as useful as any other value for genealogical
purposes.

****
Ancestral name used instead of participant's name.

*****
Indicates a Brown-surnamed man tested by FTDNA who hasn't yet joined the
Brown DNA Study